Quick Hits

posted by Jay -

Nov 14, 2017

Stove Top Stuffing is now selling the perfect pair of pants for your Thanksgiving meal. Stove Top’s Thanksgiving Dinner Pants have a stretchy pouch that fits over the belly, similar to maternity wear, although they are decorated in a festive stuffing pattern. They come in all sizes and only cost $19.98.

A new poll finds 76% of shoppers would gladly give something up in order to not have to deal with Black Friday chaos, while 26% would actually rather have root canal than deal with the craziness. “Money” has come out with four common Black Friday scams you may want to beware of or else you’ll be regretting that trip to the store. They include:

Doorbusters– Lots of stores will be offering some insane deals to get you into the store, but unless you line up days before Black Friday you aren’t likely to get your hands on them. These Doorbusters are often “limited quantity,” which can sometimes translate to as little as four items. Instead, look for Doorbuster guarantees, in which stores often guarantee a price as long as you arrive by a certain time.

Discounts aren’t as good as advertised – Stores will often inflate the original price of an item to make it look like the discount you’re getting is more substantial than it really is. To avoid being tricked, don’t pay attention to the percentage of the discount, and instead try and find out how much the actual price of the item is at other stores to see if you’re really getting a deal.

Price matching may be exempt– When it isn’t the holidays many stores will match a cheaper price found at a competitor, but often from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, stores will suspend or limit the policy. Because of this, shoppers really need to be careful to comparison shop to make sure they're getting the best price.

Fine print makes a difference – Stores go out of their way to make it difficult for shoppers to get deals, with the fine print on advertised sales often revealing that they aren't as good a they seem. Such fine print is usually located t the bottom of an ad, so make sure you know all the info before you start shopping.

We all dream of getting revenge on people that have done us wrong, but few people actually have the guts to make that happen. Still, there are some folks out there who have tried to get back at folks for whatever reason. And while in some cases making those folks suffer can be great, there are times when that revenge goes horribly wrong.

Now a new thread on the anonymous Whisper app has people revealing their attempts at getting revenge that didn’t quite live up to their expectations and it may scare you off from ever trying to take revenge yourself.

Revenge attempts that went wrong include:

“My best friend’s boyfriend cheated on her so in the middle of the night I went to his house and smashed his windshield. The neighbors had cameras and caught me.”

“After my brother told on me for sneaking out and got me grounded I put my grandma’s laxative in his shake. Except I picked the wrong shake and poisoned myself.”

“When I was younger I opened my sister’s collector Barbie and put it on a 100 watt light bulb. Its hair burst into flames and the living room caught on fire. All because she wouldn’t share with me.”

“My roommate tried to get me kicked out so I told the apartment manager she smokes weed in the apartment. They ended up evicting all of us.”

“I tried to catfish my husband and catch him cheating. It backfired horribly and now we’re divorcing because he can’t be with someone who doesn’t trust him.”

“I was really mad at my parents for not letting me go to camp one summer so I decided to fail all my classes on purpose that year. I ended up having to repeat that grade.”

“I made chocolate covered pretzels with pretzels that had been on the floor of my car and fed them to the person I wanted revenge on. She shared them with my best friend and my friend ended up with food poisoning.”

If you’re not Martha Stewart in the kitchen, you can still create an impressive Turkey Day spread, you just need a little help. No need to lift a spatula or mash a potato when you have dinner delivery services who can do all the dirty work for you. Sure, you might spend a little more for someone to cook Thanksgiving dinner for you, but think of all the time you’ll save not baking, roasting, and washing all those pots and pans. Here are some of the best holiday spreads with little or no cooking involved

Martha Stewart’s Complete Feast -The queen of the kitchen has partnered with meal-kit delivery service Marley Spoon, so you can create a Pinterest worthy meal with ease. You get a whole, free-range turkey and everything you need to feed 10 for just $160, including step-by-step recipes so you don’t have a holiday meltdown.

Boston Market - For just $120 you can feed 12 with this dinner, which includes a whole roasted turkey, appetizers, sides, and two pies. And the best part is you don’t have to cook it!

Whole Foods Festive Feast- Can’t decide between ham or turkey? With this dinner for 12, you get both and all the fixings for $249.

Veestro Vegan Herb Crusted Turk’y Dinner- For our non-meat eaters, this all-vegan meal has a soy-based protein dish with porcini mushroom gravy, and it comes with cornbread stuffing and cranberries, too. It’s all cooked so you just heat and serve. This vegan dinner for six is $78.

Uncle Ray’s Cajun Deep Fried Turkey - It arrives at your door cooked and frozen, so you just need to thaw it out and heat it up. The fried turkey serves 24 and sells for $179.

Thanksgiving Dinner Blue Apron- Why cook a whole turkey if there’s only two of you? You don’t have to with this meal-kit service that comes with a turkey leg, turkey breast, spices, and veggies for just $7.99 a serving.

With the stress of the holidays and maybe a glass or two of wine, family gatherings can lead to tense moments during dinner conversations. We can’t stop someone else from saying the wrong thing, but we can all agree to stay away from certain subjects so things don’t get too uncomfortable around the table. Here are some phrases we should avoid at holiday dinners so we can all have a good time.

"You should have…” - The word “should” just makes us feel the judgment and disappointment, so avoid all that negativity and use “could” instead when you can.

“Can you believe what [insert name of detested elected official or political party here] just did?” - You know better than to bring up politics in mixed company, especially at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Unless you’re looking for a heated debate, just don’t do it.

“The best turkey I ever had was…” - Be a polite guest, not a food critic. Holiday meals are not the time to talk about how a dish could’ve been prepared better or to compare meals you’ve had in the past. You’re better off focusing on how tasty the meal in front of you is and how much you appreciate it.

“Did you hear about…?” - It’s easy to slip into gossip mode, but try to steer the conversation back to something positive instead of dogging cousin Joe who escaped to Florida instead of coming to family dinner.

“When are you going to…” - Try not to make anyone feel defensive or put on the spot and if you’re the one in the hot seat, try to deflect with humor and a smile as you change the subject.

“Remember the time you…”- Holiday dinners aren’t the time to bring up unflattering stories about loved ones, even if you think the story is hilarious. If someone brings up a mistake from the past, try saying “I’m so glad we can look back and laugh about it now.”